(27 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mexico City, Mexico – 26 August 2024
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of protesters holding candles around Angel of Independence
2. Various of people chanting
3. People waving Mexican flags
4. Various of people chanting
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Benjamin Arce, lawyer:
"This is a struggle that we have to wage as workers, because we are independent and we do not want to be submissive to the government and not because we do not want to be submissive to the government, but because justice must be completely independent and impartial, so that resolutions can be given that do not have to be in line with the government."
6. Various of people chanting
7. Sign reading (Spanish) "Justice is not for vote."
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Marco Camacho, court clerk:
"We all have a judicial career, all of us now in the judiciary have a career, we have been promoted through competitive examinations. We have learned from judicial school, we have had courses, we have had countless specializations, all of us who belong to the federal judiciary and the requirement is that all of us have a law degree by profession."
9. Various of woman holding candle and chanting
10. Various of protesters holding candles
STORYLINE:
Protesters gathered in Mexico City on Monday night to voice their opposition to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s proposed judicial overhaul.
Demonstrators around the city’s iconic Angel of Independence monument held candles and expressed concerns about changing the judiciary, particularly making judgeships subject to election.
Many protesters were also upset by a proposal to do away with independent regulatory agencies.
Following big electoral victories in June by the president’s Morena party and its allies, the government has pushed for sweeping changes to Mexico’s judicial system, long at odds with López Obrador, a populist who has openly attacked judges and ignored court orders.
His proposal includes having judges elected to office, something analysts, judges and international observers fear would stack courts with politically biased judges with little experience.
The proposed changes would require approval by Mexico’s Congress, where the governing coalition has the majority.
On Friday, electoral authorities allocated Morena and allied parties 73% of the seats in the lower house of Congress, though they won a significantly smaller 60% of the vote.
That would give the governing bloc the two-thirds majority in Chamber of Deputies needed to push through constitutional changes with little or no compromise.
Morena argues Mexico’s independent oversight and regulatory bodies are a waste of money.
It says oversight responsibilities should be given to government departments instead, essentially allowing them to police themselves.
The collective moves by the president and his party have fueled concerns about undermining democratic institutions.
But for many in the crowds, the overhaul of the judiciary represents the greatest threat.
"Justice must be completely independent and impartial, so that resolutions can be given that do not have to be in line with the government," said lawyer Benjamin Arce.
AP video by Fernanda Pesce
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